What Are Minimum Credit Card Payments?
Minimum credit card payments are the smallest amount you must pay toward your monthly credit card balance to keep your account in good standing. This amount is typically calculated as a percentage of your total balance, usually around 1-3%, or a fixed amount, whichever is higher. It’s important to note that making only the minimum payment will result in higher interest charges over time, and it may take much longer to pay off your balance compared to paying more than the minimum.
Have you ever wondered how much interest you have to pay if you ONLY pay the minimum payments for your credit card? Also, it is essential to know that after how much time will you be able to pay off your credit card if you only make the minimum payments. Don’t worry, with our calculator, you will be able to find out just that.
Field Help
Input Fields
Title: A title for these calculator results that will help you identify it if you have printed out several versions of the calculator.
Credit Card Balance: Your current outstanding balance on this credit card.
Interest Rate: The current annual interest rate charged for the outstanding balance on this credit card. You may actually have different interest rates for different balance amounts. This could happen if part of your balance came from a cash advance (many credit cards charge a higher interest rate and no grace period for cash advances), if you made some purchases during a lower percentage promotion period, or maybe you transferred the balance from another credit card for a special low-interest rate promotion.
Minimum Payment Percent: The minimum percentage (usually 2%-3%) of your outstanding balance the credit card issuer expects you pay each month. They usually calculate this for you and it shows up as the ‘Amount Due’ on your statement each month.
Minimum Principal Percent: The minimum percentage (usually 1%) of principal federal guidelines require you to pay each month. Your actual payment will be either just the ‘Minimum Payment Percent’ or the ‘Minimum Principal Percent’ plus interest and fees, whichever is greater. Enter 0 if your credit card is issued by a credit union or other issuer that is exempt from the 2006 federal guidelines.
Minimum Interest Amount: If your credit card has a balance and you’re paying interest, there is probably a minimum amount of interest (usually $0.50 or $1.00) that will be charged for the month.
Minimum Payment Amount: The minimum amount (maybe $5.00) the credit card issuer expects you to pay each month, regardless of what the ‘Minimum Percent Payment’ calculates as. In other words, if the ‘Minimum Percent Payment’ (3%) calculation says you’re obligated to pay $3.75 this month, your ‘Amount Due’ will actually be this amount ($5.00).
Output Fields
Payoff Time: The number of years and months it will take to pay off this credit card balance. This is the ‘Number of Payments’ expressed in years and months.
Number of Payments: You will make this many payments to pay off this credit card balance.
Total Paid: Total amount of principal + interest you will have paid when this credit card balance is paid off.
Total Interest: Total amount of interest you will have paid to get this credit card balance paid off.
FAQs
Question: What Is The Minimum Payment That You Pay On A $3000 Card?
On a $3000 card, you will have to pay at least $30.
Question: Do I Have To Pay If My Minimum Payment Due Is Nill?
A zero minimum payment due shows that you have a positive credit history. With it, you can skip payments where it is allowed.
Question: What Happens If I Pay the Minimum Due?
If you pay only the minimum due then the remaining balance will be carried forward to the next year.
Question: How Do I Pay Minimum Payments?
In order to be free from the minimum payments, it is necessary to pay the full amount every month. If you can’t pay full then just pay more than the minimum amount.